Martina in LOVE

…with Topinambur.

the other day we had a conversation. We had it before, about a billion times for sure, but than it was super acute – thanksgiving/left overs/ food waste. What to do? what is the solution? I don’t have one, but I am aware that I have to do my best to recycle and save sources where I can. So I dehydrate, I puree, I water, let’s say I experiment.

My path brought me to the organic store in my neighbour hood, veggies are expensive here, I know and I don’t mind, I want them to be as pure as possible as they will enter and nourish my organism plus this local buisness needs to be supported. Yes! So sometimes when I get there and I’m lucky they have a selection of not so super pretty products, means apples or carrots with wrinkles or soft sweet peppers (which actually have reached their zenith of vitamin content at that point!)

That particular morning I found something new, saw it before in the shop, but so far they did not really call my attention, had no idea who they were and what to do with them. Now they where here, sorted out and waiting to be taken home instead of being thrown away, I suppose many of my neighbours don’t know how to use my new favorite vegetable. Anyway i bought one of the boxes full of these ‘roots’? what are they? I had no time to search the web, and a friend coming over for lunch, so my instinct told me to simply boil them.

Here they are. Topinambur. We looked them up. And they taste AMAZING. a mix of potato (look/texture) carrot (flavor) nuts (flavor) and sorry about that fish (texture)

Foto: Lorenzo Melissari

People call them differently – Jerusalem artichoke, Sunchoke (as they belong to the family of sunflowers, Helianthus tuberosus, lat.) what seemed interesting was the diabetic potato, for it’s texture and it’s said that for it’s high content in fibers and low content in carbohydrates, can lower the blood sugar level. I will investigate on that one…

So far I have to delicious ways to prepare them, one path is in the dehydrator and will be serve as RAW chips on thursday in the #labcuina. If you are interested in new flavors come visit me in the lab, versions of topinambur my topic of the week!